Thursday, 19 January 2012

Questionnaire from Zak Smith

1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?
In Vampire: The Masquerade, I once made the Storyteller scream with fear at the idea of a Setite with a magical pool of purification that would make his vampirism a curse instead of a blessing (using his penchant for corruption to corrupt a pool of corruption... if that makes sense).

2. When was the last time you GMed?
December, running a playtest of an Arabian Nights inspired FATE game.

3. When was the last time you played?
I spent today sort of playing, working on advancement for a city in Dresden Files. Otherwise, Friday 13th January in a one-shot Dresden Files adventure called Evil Acts.

4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.
Roman Empire D&D with the party encountering weird and wonderful monsters in either Persia or Northern Africa.

5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?
Go over notes, listen to what they're talking about, prepare for my turn if I'm in combat.

6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?
Pizza for preference, but usually more snack based cuisine.

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?
I can find it mentally exhausting. It depends how animated I get.

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?
In the above mentioned oneshot, I had to make a decision between a roomful of people being killed with juju I didn't understand, or shooting my surrogate daughter (and probably following that with a nervous breakdown in the least).

9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?
If it's a serious setting, it's usually understood that any unseriousness should happen out of character. However, it depends on the group, how a particular session is going, and the energy in the room.

10. What do you do with goblins?
Depends. I quite like replacing them with these brutes.

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?
Arabian folklore from Wikipedia and a handful of other encyclopedias. Other than that, maybe Medieval European eating habits.

12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?
Having the rest of the Cyberpunk group looking dumbfounded when, after their goading that I should enact my secret plan, having it turn out to be a full-scale attack on a school for psionic children, whilst one of the other player characters was inside.

13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?Synapse by Greg Christopher. Giving it a proper read through to decide if it would make a suitable system for my currently brewing sci-fi idea.

14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?
If I see a picture that makes me say 'Wow' every time I see it.

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?
I don't tend to get too terrifying. Maybe if a TPK is looking likely.

16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)
I don't often run them. I've run the adventure in the back of Legend of the Five Rings 1st edition plenty of times, and it's always fun to see how different groups do different things.

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?
A decently sized roundtable that fits between five and six players happily, with space for dice, books, sheets of paper and pizza.

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?
Mechanically, Feng Shui and the Alternity. The former rolls 2d6, subtracts lowest from highest and adds modifiers. I understood that straight away. The latter involves all kinds of different dice and confused me on the core mechanic the first few times I read it.

19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?
Probably creative writing workshops/assessment in university and general historical interest/interest in breakthroughs in technology. Though that last one is a bit more genre specific.

20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?
One who pays attention, enjoys themselves, and makes the game fun for everyone involved.

21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?
Probably just various social situations in bars, although I've known a few historical reenactment people so I've gotten to see how swords actually feel in your hand. Archery during scouts maybe?

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?
A few, but I'd prefer to develop them myself. Hardware-wise, perhaps a cheap tablet that's perfect for reading pdf rulebooks on.

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?
I've had people fall asleep when I've been talking about it. That's perfectly fine, right?

EDIT: Zak's now asked why your significant other doesn't play too. Well, I've had an S.O. that did, but currently don't. The reasons I've heard tend to follow the lines of 'playing make believe is a little immature', although 'it's all very complicated' has come up too I'm sure.